Sony: 3DS circle pad add-on "shocking"

Top Sony exec Shuhei Yoshida was "shocked" to see Nintendo's circle pad add-on announcement and speculated that the peripheral is a result of a demand from Monster Hunter developer Capcom.

Speaking in an interview with GameInformer, Sony's worldwide studios boss explained that he doesn't see Nintendo's decision to add a second circle pad as a response to the Vita's dual stick set-up.

"Well it's not like they looked at PS Vita and said 'we need to do that as well,'" he said.

"I don't know. It's clear that they didn't believe a second analog was necessary when they designed the 3DS, so I can only guess it was requested by Capcom's side. Maybe a Capcom producer told Nintendo that to play Monster Hunter we need [two] analog sticks. That I don't know, so I can only guesstimate.

"It was a bit shocking to see what they came up with," he added.

Last week Nintendo announced that both a port of Wii title Monster Hunter Tri and Monster Hunter 4 are in development for the 3DS and will be compatible with the new peripheral. Give our 3DS Circle Pad Extension hands-on a read for more on the unsightly extra.